Kosuke Okimori，是Kewpie Pension基金的执行投资总监，福利当前和前雇员Kewpie Corp.。, a leading manufacturer of food products. Kewpie’s defined benefit fund serves about 8,000 employees and retirees, and has AUM of approximately JPY 65.5 billion as of May 2020, with an expected return of 3%. Its policy asset mix consists of bonds (domestic and foreign), equities (domestic and foreign), long-term growth assets, insurance-linked securities, insurance general account, and short-term assets. The fund maintains a relatively high ratio of alternative assets at 20%, which was increased from 4% in 2014.
Since its establishment, just over 100 years ago, Kewpie Corporation has believed that good products begin with good ingredients. Okimori believes a similar approach is also the starting place for managing a pension fund, as he shares in this interview.
“我们的养老金基金的管理始于良好的投资和良好的资产管理。正确的资产经理比正确的产品更重要。毕竟，改变产品比改变管理者更容易。“
“I have certain expectations of our asset managers: invest in new products, but be willing to shed existing ones; assess total returns by viewing the portfolio holistically, rather than simply assessing individual products – and avoid bias toward your own products.”
“Initially, our fund’s investment principles were boilerplate, written by a trust bank. We found the language wasn’t reflective of Kewpie as a company, so we rewrote it to better reflect our own values. In addition to the above-mentioned corporate philosophy, Kewpie maintains three corporate principles, which we reformulated and made part of our fund’s general operation: 1) Act on moral principles – meaning asset managers should base their assessments on what is true and right; 2) Strive for originality and ingenuity – meaning don’t be satisfied with the status quo, and adapt a flexible management style to achieve targets; and 3) Look after the parent’s wellbeing – meaning the fund should repay employees and beneficiaries who have contributed to the Kewpie group. Articulating these principles helps Kewpie’s employees understand what our fund is about. It means more than simply saying, ‘Trust our fund management.’”
“We strive to bring practice in line with our corporate philosophy everywhere in our operations. This year, we’ve teamed with a fintech company to develop an analytical tool that will make accounting ledgers and reporting more efficient by dropping all data from asset managers into a single batch. Improving our booking system and asset management platform has been an issue for some time – currently it is difficult to instantly obtain monthly closings and annual returns. The classification of asset allocation varies depending on where it is submitted into the platform. Hopefully, our improvements to these systems will not only help my successors, but other pension funds and asset owners as well.”
“Our immediate goals also include formalizing our ESG investment policies and SDG [sustainable development goals] in writing, extending them to all investments, not just equities. Again, the wording will reflect Kewpie’s long history of environmental concern and engagement.”
“所有这些造物在我的任期的前三年左右的一年中发起，以解开我觉得的东西效率低下或难以理解。在每次改革的核心，渴望获得雇员和受益人的理解和信任。经过近10年的担任Kewpie养老基金的董事，我开始朝着将缰绳传递给下一代。“
“自从我加入Kewpie以来，我曾参与过农业进口，然后在40岁时，我突然转移到会计，我必须通过研究簿记文本来学习。2012年，我被任命为企业养老基金投资总监。再一次，我从划痕开始 - 如，“管理基金是什么意思？我通过检查投资组合来开始。常识可能已经决定我告诉Kewpie Hr他们已经犯了一个巨大的错误，但我看似无关的经历最终告诉了我现在的工作。“
“For example, the knowledge of weather I acquired from dealing with agricultural products helps me understand insurance investments. My belief that good products derive from good ingredients came from my experience with crop trading. I learned there that a good product cannot result unless you are committed to it at every stage – from seeds to farming land, harvest, to processing, to delivery and retail. The same idea applies to being an asset manager. Once you start cutting corners or ignoring problems, you will never achieve a satisfactory return.”
“It’s a common saying in the food industry that ‘you can judge a company by its toilets.’ In practice, I could determine the quality of a crop by noting the condition of the farmland – for example, whether there were puddles or adequate sunlight. At asset management companies, it’s harder to see such signs. Still, you can gather clues from the entrances of office divisions, postings on office walls, or how the desktops are organized.”
“在整个生活中，我发现自己被迫适应新的环境。作为一个孩子，我从汉堡6到11岁以上的小学参加了汉堡，然后是西德西部的一部分。我的同学都没有见过日本人。我再次回到日本，在主要之外，另一个孩子的背景不同。这种经历让我热衷于了解其他人的观点。例如，当我与资产管理人员交谈，例如，关于国外投资的资产管理人员，我专注于他们如何看待他们投资的国家。然后我可以将他们擅长的是什么，他们倾向于强调，以及如何知识渊博和热情。一如既往，我试图组装最好的成分，以获得我们的基金的最佳管理结果。“